My Ex Destroyed a Priceless Artifact

Three years after breaking up, I ran into my ex-girlfriend Michelle, with her new boyfriend Collins by her side.

Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Howard, Collins sneered mockingly. Three years since the breakup, and you've fallen so low you're playing with mud here?

I frowned and ignored them, carefully moving the ancient Greek maid sculpture in my hands toward the preset base in the display case.

Seeing that I wasn't responding, Collins actually reached out directly toward the maid sculpture in my arms.

"What kind of junk is this? Let me see!"

Michelle beside him also frowned, her tone carrying its usual arrogance.

"Howard, I dumped you three years ago. Why are you still such a pathetic loser?"

"Come on, show Collins that broken clay figure you're holding. Don't be a buzzkill. If you behave, I might consider not canceling our previous engagement."

Just as Collins's hand was about to touch the maid sculpture, I frantically dodged and warned sternly:

"Don't touch it! This is an antique!"

Collins flew into a rage and shoved me hard.

"Something worth ten bucks from a street stall, and you're putting on airs!"

During the scuffle, I lost my balance, and the maid sculpture suddenly slipped from my hands.

Great. These two idiots couldn't pay for this even if they went bankrupt!

"Crack!"

A crisp, heartbreaking sound exploded in the empty, silent exhibition hall.

That priceless cultural relic, condensed from countless people's efforts, shattered to pieces before my eyes.

The maid became a pile of cold fragments on the ground. That thousand-year-old melody that had never been played came to an abrupt end.

My heartbeat nearly stopped with it.

The world fell into deathly silence.

I stared blankly at the pile of fragments, my entire body's blood seeming to drain instantly, my hands and feet ice cold.

Michelle frowned and walked over, looking down at me condescendingly, her eyes full of cold indifference and mockery.

"Howard, it's just a broken clay figure. Do you really need to make that half-dead expression?"

Collins laughed even harder, bending over with laughter. He stepped on a larger fragment and ground it with force.

"Michelle, look at him. Acting like the sky is falling. What a performance. It's just a broken clay figure. Is it really necessary?"

The cultural relic suffered secondary damage. I gasped.

Unable to think about anything else, I shoved Collins aside to check the fragments on the ground, trying to salvage what I could.

This was a unique piece that our team had spent half a year recovering from overseas, an irreplaceable treasure.

"How dare you push him over some piece of junk?!"

Michelle shouted sharply, stepping forward to block me, the force so great I couldn't help but stumble back several steps.

She glanced at me. "Apologize to him. Now!"

I rolled my eyes at her, circled around her, and pulled out my phone with trembling hands.

Under Michelle and Collins's amused gazes, I dialed the number I least should have disturbed at this moment.

When I spoke, my voice was surprisingly calm, so calm even I felt it was foreign.

"Dr. Kane?"

"A Class One cultural relic, an ancient Greek maid sculpture, has been deliberately destroyed."

The contempt on Michelle and Collins's faces instantly froze, transforming into bewilderment.

They looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"You're calling the police?" Collins let out an exaggerated sneer. He rushed over and knocked my phone from my hand.

With a crack, the phone hit the ground, the screen shattering instantly.

"A broken clay figure, a Class One cultural relic? Do you have delusions or something?"

"Do you think a poor loser like you could even touch a Class One cultural relic?"

Not only did he show no remorse, but as if to expose my "pretentious act," he did something even more insane.

He turned and rushed to a nearby display case where we had just set up a set of ancient Chinese glazed cups.

The display case's security system hadn't been fully activated yet. The glass cover was only loosely placed.

Before I could react, Collins yanked open the glass cover and swept his arm across.

Crash

Crisp shattering sounds rang out one after another, more frequent and piercing than the sound of the maid breaking earlier.

That set of glazed cups, shimmering under the lights and thin as cicada wings, instantly turned into a pile of crystalline powder on the ground.

"I'm not just breaking that one. I'm smashing all of these! What are you going to do about it?"

He pointed at the fragments on the ground and shouted at me, "You bought these on Amazon for 10 bucks, right?"

He pulled out his wallet, extracted a hundred-dollar bill, and casually threw it on the ground.

"This should be enough to buy your whole cart of junk. Keep the change."

These were precious cultural relics, and he was insulting them with a mere hundred dollars?!

All the blood in my body rushed to my brain. I felt dizzy with rage.

These exhibits were precious and irreplaceable, yet he was destroying them so wantonly!

Michelle just stood to the side, arms folded across her chest, watching coldly.

Not only did she show no intention of stopping him, she seemed to be enjoying an amusing farce.

Her eyes were full of contempt, as if she had seen through all my tricks.

"Howard, have you made enough of a scene?"

"I know you still want to get back together with me. After all, someone with my family backgroundif you lose this chance, you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

She paused, as if bestowing a great favor upon me.

"How about thisapologize to Collins right now. Say you shouldn't have used such underhanded tactics to scare him. Then we'll forget about today, and I can reconsider letting you fulfill our engagement."

This was the woman I had loved for five whole years. Arrogant, ignorant, and stupid.

Collins immediately took her arm, saying in a boastful tone, "Michelle, you're being too good to him! After what he did to you, you're still willing to give him a chance?"

Then he turned to me, his eyes overflowing with contempt and smugness.

"Howard, did you hear that? Michelle is soft-hearted and still has feelings for you. Shouldn't you kneel down right now and thank her?"

I spat on his shoe.

"Everything you destroyed here today, every single piece, is a genuine cultural relic!"

"Not something you can insult with your money. I've already called the police."

"They're on their way. You won't get away with this today!"

Michelle looked at me with disgust, frowning. "You just want money, don't you?"

"Stop making up these lies. Three years later and you're still just as money-grubbing."

She pulled out a black card from her wallet and casually threw it at my feet.

"There's a million dollars in here." Her voice was full of impatience and condescension. "That should be enough to buy this whole room of junk, right?"

"Take the money and stop this act. My patience has limits."

A million dollars? To buy this whole room of junk?

I stared at that black card lying on the remains of thousand-year-old cultural relics, dripping with irony.

Every word they spoke was like a red-hot branding iron, searing into my heart.

This wasn't ordinary property damage. This wasn't a dispute that could be measured in money.

This was a blatant trampling of human civilization! A ruthless insult to the professional faith I had upheld for years!

I slowly, slowly raised my head. My gaze swept past the mess on the ground and shot straight toward Michelle's self-satisfied face.

I looked at the arrogance in her eyes, and in that moment, the string called reason in my heart finally snapped completely.

I suddenly stood up. Under Michelle and Collins's shocked gazes, I raised my hand and, using all my strength, slapped her hard across the face!

"Smack!"

The crisp, loud slap exploded through the empty exhibition hall.

The entire world seemed to fall silent in that moment.

Michelle was stunned.

On her beautiful face, at a speed visible to the naked eye, five clear fingerprints appeared.

She covered her face, her eyes full of disbelief.

She probably never dreamed that I, who had once obeyed her every word and never dared to raise my voice, would actually dare to hit her.

I didn't stop. I turned toward Collins, who stood there in shock, and backhanded him with an equally loud slap!

Smack!

Collins screamed and staggered from my blow, crashing into the display case behind him.

I shook my hand, which was tingling from the excessive force, and the pent-up anger in my chest seemed to find an outlet in that moment.

I pointed at them and roared with all my strength, word by word:

"You are not fit to be citizens!"

My resistance, like two resounding slaps, struck not only their faces but completely tore away the last shred of Michelle's pretense at dignity.

After a brief moment of shock came overwhelming fury.

"Howard!" She covered her face, her eyes vicious, as if she would pounce and devour me alive the next second. "How dare you hit me?!"

"I see you really don't want to work in this industry anymore!"

She pulled out her phone, roughly swiping open the screen, and right in front of me, dialed a number.

The moment the call connected, she roared into the receiver, her voice filled with the rage of being offended and vicious determination.

"Mom! It's me! I'm having some trouble at the National Museum!"

"Yes, some man who doesn't know his place offended Collins and hit me! Call the Cultural Affairs Bureau leadership right now and have him fired immediately!"

She sneered, approaching me step by step, threatening me in an ice-cold voice:

"I can not only get you fired immediately, I can make sure you never get ahead in the entire museum and heritage circle! Howard, do you believe me?"

"Now, kneel down and apologize to Collins!"

"Otherwise, face the consequences!"

With Michelle backing him up, Collins immediately snapped out of his earlier panic, his arrogance flaring up again.

He rubbed his swollen cheek, his resentful gaze sweeping over me before finally landing on the museum's crown jewel at the center of the hall, protected independently by bulletproof glass.

A nearly insane light suddenly flashed in Collins's eyes.

"You say this is real? You say all of this is real?" He laughed shrilly, like a madman, suddenly rushing toward that display platform. "Fine! I'll smash this too! Let's see how you keep up this act! Let's see what you tell your Dr. Kane!"

This was no longer simple destruction. This was insane revenge!

"Don't you dare!" My eyes nearly split with rage, all the blood in my body rushing to my head in that moment.

I had no time to think. My body reacted before my brain could.

I lunged over like a madman, spreading my arms wide, using my flesh and blood to protect that display platform, standing between him and the cultural relic.

"Get out of the way!" Collins had completely lost his reason.

He reached out and shoved hard at my body, trying to push me aside so he could knock over that silver pot.

In that critical moment, when my heart was about to leap out of my chest

"Bang!"

The heavy door of the exhibition hall was violently pushed open from outside by a tremendous force.

"Freeze! Police! Everyone put your hands up!"

Stern shouts, like thunder from heaven, suddenly rang out.

Over a dozen uniformed, armed police officers surged in like a tide, their dark gun barrels instantly aimed at everyone in the exhibition hall.

The lead officer had eyes like lightning, an imposing presence, and a voice filled with undeniable authority.

The entire world fell silent again.

The police's sudden arrival was like a bucket of ice water dumped over their heads, instantly extinguishing Michelle and Collins's arrogance.

Collins's hand froze in mid-air, the madness on his face fading into confusion and terror.

But Michelle clearly hadn't yet realized the seriousness of the situation.

She only frowned slightly. After a brief moment of panic, she quickly regained her composure. She even adjusted her slightly disheveled collar, assuming her usual arrogant posture, and addressed the lead officer:

"Officer, this is just a misunderstanding."

"My friend was joking with this gentleman and accidentally broke some things. We Hugos will compensate for all losses doubleno, ten times over."

She still thought this was a small matter that could be settled with money.

Just then, another series of hurried but steady footsteps came from the entrance.

Our museum's curator, currently covered in sweat and looking panicked, was accompanying a stern-faced, naturally imposing middle-aged man as they quickly walked in.

Seeing that middle-aged man, the arrogance on Michelle's face finally showed a crack, her color changing slightly.

And when I saw who it was, my nerves, taut to the breaking point, finally relaxed a bit. My eyes grew hot, and I nearly shed tears.

I immediately went forward, my voice trembling slightly with emotion:

"Dr. Kane!"

The newcomer was none other than Dr. Kane from the Cultural Affairs Bureau. The person I had called in my last moment of rationality.

Dr. Kane's sharp gaze quickly swept across the chaotic scene, his brow visibly furrowing.

He ignored Michelle's extended hand attempting to shake his, didn't even glance at her, but walked straight to the fragments of the ancient Greek maid sculpture on the ground.

He crouched down, pulled out a pair of white gloves from his pocket, put them on meticulously, then carefully, as if holding a priceless treasure, picked up the largest fragment.

His expression instantly turned ashen.

An emotion mixing heartache, regret, and towering rage condensed around him. The air pressure in the entire exhibition hall seemed to drop several degrees because of his silence.

He slowly stood up, his gaze like two unsheathed swords shooting straight at the now terrified Collins.

"Do you know what you've destroyed?"

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried tremendous weight. Every word seemed squeezed through clenched teeth, hammering into Collins's heart.

He didn't wait for an answer but turned to me, his voice containing rage and heartache suppressed to the extreme. "Howard, tell me the situation. Every detail. Don't leave out a single word!"

I forced myself to control my emotions, took a deep breath, and recounted everything that had just happened.

After listening, Dr. Kane said nothing.

He only slowly, slowly turned around and looked at Michelle with eyes cold to the extreme.